Spend Matters Friday Latte

"Our garbage isn't worth more than LA's."Chicago Mayor Trashes Politics of Waste Removal -- At 6:45 on a recent morning, three burly men in yellow slickers piled into a city garbage truck for a two-mile ride to a weed-choked alley where a row of 96-gallon trash bins awaited. Over the next few hours, the men emptied scores of black containers, hopping on and off their truck as they lumbered from block to block. It's a tough job but quitting time usually comes early. Total time worked on a typical shift: about 5½ hours, according to a city audit.

...and who's going to pick up the dentist's bill?Looking to Save Money, More Places Decide to Stop Fluoridating the Water -- A growing number of communities are choosing to stop adding fluoride to their water systems, even though the federal government and federal health officials maintain their full support for a measure they say provides a 25 percent reduction in tooth decay nationwide.

Yikes.Listeria death toll now at 23, making outbreak deadliest in 25 years -- The Listeria outbreak from cantaloupes is now the deadliest foodborne illness outbreak in the U.S. in more than 25 years. The CDC announced Wednesday that 23 people have died from listeriosis, while another 116 have been sickened. Not since 1985, when Listeria from Mexican-style soft cheeses killed 52 people, has a foodborne illness outbreak been this deadly in America. The current death toll also surpassed a 1998 Listeria outbreak linked to processed meats that killed 21 people.

I haven't posted some good dinosaur news in awhile. Happy Friday.Tyrannosaurus rex was much, much bigger than we thought -- An international team of researchers has used three-dimensional laser scans to determine that Tyrannosaurus rex were likely 30% more massive that we once thought -- and a whole lot hungrier. Be honest, now...how many of you woke up this morning thinking you'd hear the words "three-dimensional laser" and "Tyrannosaurus rex" used in the same sentence?